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What are Auto Attendants?
- Think of an Auto Attendant as your department’s virtual receptionist.
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Callers can then choose options (like “Press 1 for Admissions, Press 2 for Financial Aid”) so their call gets routed to the right person or team.
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The Auto Attendant can also handle calls differently depending on the time of day:
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During business hours – Calls can ring a person, a hunt group (call queue), or go to a shared voicemail.
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After hours/holidays – Callers can hear a different message (for example: “We’re closed for Thanksgiving. Please call back when the office reopens.”).
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With Teams, you no longer have to record a new greeting message every time there’s a holiday. Instead, you can set your business hours and add holiday dates ahead of time. Teams will automatically switch to the right greeting at the right time.
How to make changes to Auto Attendants
If you’ve been granted Authorized User rights for an Auto Attendant:
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You can open Teams > Settings > Calls > Auto Attendant.
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From there, you can update business hours, edit holiday closure dates, and change the greeting messages that callers hear.
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Everything you need is available directly in the Teams app.
Changing auto attendant settings in the Teams app
- Open the Teams app on your PC
- Click the three dots next to your profile icon in the top right. Then click "Settings"
- On the settings page, use the left navigation pane to go to your Calling settings
- You should see your personal call settings here. Find the Auto Attendant you need to manage at the top bar and select it.
- If you do not see your Auto Attendant, it's probably because you haven't been added as an "Authorized User" yet. Please make a ticket if this is the case: Service - Extension
- Once the Auto Attendant is selected, your screen should look like the below screenshot:
Manage Business and After Hours
- Here you will see your business hour schedule. This tells the phone system when to use the "Call flow for business hours" vs "Call flow for after hours"
- Clicking "Manage Hours" will allow you to change this information.
- In most cases you will want to set "Set Business Hours" to "Open different hours everyday" unless you have the same schedule every day (including weekends).
- You are able to set the range of hours for every day of the week.
- You can also set "breaks" in the middle of your open hours by clicking the "+" next to each day's entry
- If your department is closed on the weekends, be sure to set Saturday and Sunday to "Closed" by toggling the radial button on the right.
Call Flow for Business Hours
- This is where you will change your greeting for when the department is open. You have 3 options:
- No Greeting = There will be no greeting but voice options will still be read out (if applicable)
- Play an audio file = You may upload an audio file (MP3 and WAV formats) that will be played before the voice option readout
- Add a greeting message = You may type in a message that will be read by Microsoft's Text-to-speech bot
Call Flow for After Hours
- This is virtually identical to the above "Call Flow for Business Hours"
- These greetings are triggered during the off hours set by "Manage Business and After Hours"
- We recommend including your department's schedule in this greeting message
Manage Holiday Call Flow
- Holidays in Teams Calling work like one-off schedules that override your normal business hours schedule. They are able to be configured with their own greetings and call routing.
- Users are only able to edit greetings, and change dates for pre-existing holidays. ITS must add the holiday entries for you.
- If you need a holiday added to your auto attendant, please put in a ticket at: Service - Extension
